Sweet Like Candy
by Paisley May
Summary: “Come on, Sasuke-kun! It’s Halloween!” Sasuke rolled his eyes.


I wrote me a Halloween story! Pshyeah! Haha, please tell me if you liked it. =]

**Summary-** "Come on, Sasuke-kun! It's Halloween!"

**Disclaimer-** Even during the week before the blissful holiday of Halloween, I still don't own Naruto. Life sucks like that, doesn't it?

* * *

_**Sweet Like Candy**_

_By: Paisley May_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

~.~.~.~

_***Monday***_

~.~.~.~

"_Sasuke-kun, where are you?"_

He sat up further in bed and groaned. What the hell was she talking about?

"_Hello? Sasuke-kun, why aren't you in homeroom?"_

Sasuke rolled over to look at his clock. It was seven-thirty, and the alarm hadn't gone off. He jumped from his bed, threw on his clothes and ran to his car. Despite his rushed demeanor, he'd been careful not to scratch the paint on his new BMW. Besides, if he took his car today and sped a little through the neighborhood, he'd make it on time for sure.

"_Sasuke-kun? …Did you hang up on me?"_

~.~.~.~

"Hi Sasuke-kun! You showed up!"

Just as he slouched down into his seat, the bell rang.

"…Hn."

"Hey, guess what?"

He gave a small sigh when the teacher gave them permission to start the Biology assignment. It was enough to show he was listening.

"Halloween is this Saturday!" He rolled his eyes.

"Sakura, aren't you a little old for that?"

"Aww, sixteen is _so _not too old! I know! You can come over for Halloween! We could watch scary movies, and eat candy, and-"

"I hate candy. You know that."

She looked deflated, and Sasuke felt more than a little guilty. It wasn't that he didn't want to hang out with her. They were… friends, or whatever other people may have called it.

Sakura gave a fake pout to show she wasn't going to give up so easily.

"Puh-leaaaaaaase, Sasuke-kun? Naruto could come too, and Hinata and Ino and-"

"No."

She looked fully prepared to continue whining until he cut in again.

"Just us. Maybe Naruto."

Sakura squealed loud enough to make him already regret his decision.

"In that case, we can each bring one movie, and then we can watch all three!"

His mind glazed over the obscene number of horror movies he owned, wondering which one he should bring. Preferably, he thought, one that would keep both Sakura and Naruto from ever wanting to watch movies with him ever again. Sakura tapped her chin in thought.

"In fact, why don't we just go to your house? It's so big and creepy-looking, won't it be perfect?"

He was certainly going to regret this.

~.~.~.~

_***Tuesday***_

~.~.~.~

"Sakura, I hate candy. Why should I care what kind you get?"

"Because I'm determined to get you to eat some! Everyone eats candy on Halloween! Besides, if you spend your childhood acting like you're middle aged, your soul will die before you're fifty! Oh, and I think you might need to pay for it, too…"

She grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the candy aisle of the local drugstore. An older woman was there, buying hard peppermint candies and smiling smugly at Sasuke. It wasn't until then that he realized how red his face had become. Sasuke tore his hand away from Sakura's as quickly as possible. The old woman just laughed and sauntered over to the checkout line.

"Hn… stupid crone," he muttered under his breath.

Sakura looked up from a candy corn display, and for a second he thought maybe she'd heard him.

"What was that, Sasuke-kun?" She looked up at him with innocent emerald eyes.

"…Nothing."

"M'kay… So do you think we should get candy corn?"

"No."

She rolled her eyes and tossed two bags into a tacky orange shopping basket.

"Now then, what's next?"

Sasuke sighed and continued walking down the aisle. Each type of candy had its own garish cardboard cutout box. They were decorated with witches and odd cartoon monsters. It wasn't scary so much as cheap.

A manicured hand thrust a small plastic baggie in front of his face. It was a candy bracelet.

"Let's get two of these, Sasuke-kun! We can eat these early!"

Eager to leave, he nodded in agreement.

"Really? Okay! Now then, Twizzlers or Junior Mints?"

He groaned.

~.~.~.~

"Now you have to eat it!"

She unwrapped the cheap candy bracelet and put it around his wrist, as she'd done with her own.

"C'mon, Sasuke-kun, you'll like it!"

Sasuke grimaced at the sweet-looking 'jewelry' that clung to his wrist, willing it to rot in hell. They were standing idly by a stop sign looking ridiculous, in his opinion. Unwilling, he lifted his arm to his lips and bit off a single piece of chalky candy. It was bitter, stale even. He liked it.

"You try it."

She eagerly bit three pieces off her bracelet, a few small crumbs falling from her mouth. She spit it out.

"Blehh, that tastes awful!"

He smirked. "But I already paid for it, Sakura."

"So?"

"Now you have to eat it."

~.~.~.~

_***Wednesday***_

~.~.~.~

"Sasuke-kun, you won't believe it!"

Sakura nearly tripped over her chair in excitement. She was always happy and cheerful as to forget where she was going, but this was different. Probably, he thought, because she had a reason today.

"Knowing you, probably not."

"I got asked on a date!"

Sakura then proceeded to tell him all about her new crush, whose name Sasuke didn't even know because he wasn't listening. It was as if someone had taken little imaginary plugs and shoved them in his ears. Why should he care about her love life, anyway? It was none of his business.

"…And then, he gave me this sweatshirt! Isn't that just so sweet? 'Cause it's getting really cold outside and everything… Hey, are you even listening, Sasuke-kun?"

Caught off-guard once again, he nodded silently. It wasn't anything terribly out-of-character for him to do, so she let it slide and continued talking.

"Ohhhh, I'm so excited! He's so sweet it makes me want to just-"

She stopped mid-sentence when he stretched his muscular arms.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, you still have your string, too!"

Confused, he glanced down at his wrist. He'd forgotten to remove the elastic after he'd finished eating the bracelet yesterday. Sasuke reached to take it off, but she stopped him.

"No, you should keep it!"

She held her arm out next to his. Both strings were ratty and a faint shade of pink. The stretchy elastic looked like it wasn't meant to be worn for more than a few hours.

"Do I have to?"

"Yep! They're like our own little friendship bracelets, you know? It means we'll be together forever!"

He turned away when his ears turned red, masking the embarrassment with a sigh.

"Don't you make those yourself?"

"But these are unique, Sasuke-kun! Whenever you see it, you'll think of me and feel allllllll happy inside!"

She tugged her new sweatshirt over her head and giggled at the floppy, oversized sleeves. Sasuke looked incredulously at his wrist. Pieces of the string were fraying out at the corners.

He wondered what was so special about a crummy piece of string.

~.~.~.~

_***Thursday***_

~.~.~.~

"Hey teme. Hey teme. Hey teme. Hey teme. Come on, you bastard, wait up already! Sakura-chaaaaan, make him slow down!"

Sakura grasped his shoulder with the massive sleeve of her sweatshirt. He hadn't seen her without it since yesterday morning.

"Sasuke-kun, just wait for him!" She laughed as Naruto frantically caught his breath.

"Can't I just go home now? The day's over."

Naruto panted, "I… just… wanted to… to ask you when… you… wanted me to… come over on… Halloween… Whew…"

Sakura stomped her foot like a young child.

"Oh shit, I totally forgot about that! I can't go, guys- I have that date, remember?"

"B-But Sakura-chan," Naruto whined, "it won't be as fun without you! Don't leave me alone with that asshole!"

"I never said you had to crash at my house, dobe…"

Sakura sighed, "Guys, get along. You'll live. He says he's gonna take me to a haunted house, so I'll get to do something for Halloween, too!"

"Awww, fine. Who's this 'guy' you keep talking about, anyway?"

Once more, Sakura babbled an overly detailed description of the guy and every moment they'd spent together in the past two days. Once more, Sasuke ignored her completely. He instead chose to brood behind the other two until they walked past his street.

He slipped away without either of them noticing.

~.~.~.~

_***Friday***_

~.~.~.~

"Sakura, I could have raked leaves by myself."

She carelessly tossed a rake back into his shed and flashed a toothy, mischievous grin.

"But Sasuke-kun, what if you trip over your rake and break something? Or you poke your eye out, or run into a tree because you were distracted and then-"

"Sakura, you're mistaken. Those are the reasons _you_ shouldn't be raking by yourself."

She stuck her tongue out and waved one hand as if dismissing him. For once, the oversized sweatshirt didn't flop around when she moved her arms. She'd rolled the sleeves up.

"Sasuke-kun, can I have something to drink now?"

He sighed, "Go home, Sakura."

"But Sasuke-kuuuun," She whined, "I'm thirsty! Don't you have any apple cider?"

Sasuke shrugged. His parents were almost always out on business, and his brother never came home from college to visit. They'd left him with nothing but an elderly maid who did all the cooking and shopping. She lived in the farthest reach of the sprawling home, and was almost impossible to find when she was working.

Sakura dashed up the front steps and straight to the kitchen. By now, she knew the house as if it were her own.

"Here it is! Hey Sasuke-kun, do you know how to make hot apple cider? It's so yummy!"

He flipped through the TV channels while she heated up two mugs of apple cider, occasionally running into the room to ask where something was. Despite her constant presence in his home, she'd never really cooked there before now.

"Sasuke-kun, where's the cinnamon? I'm almost done!"

"Top counter."

"But I already checked there!"

"Check again."

Defeated, she grumbled something incoherent before running back to the kitchen.

"I found it!"

Sakura walked carefully in the living room, using potholders to gingerly place a steaming mug in front of him. He picked it up and took a tiny sip. It was good. He nodded in approval as she took an enormous gulp, oblivious to the heat. She finished it quickly and hopped from the couch.

"See? I told you it was good, Sasuke-kun! Well, I'd better go now. Bye!"

She put the mug down and Sasuke glanced at her wrist. It was bare. He said nothing as Sakura skipped out the door. Once she was long gone, he threw the piece of string around his own arm into the trash. But he stopped.

Sasuke turned around and gently scooped the bracelet from the trash, placing it back on his wrist. There was something endearing about the little piece of garbage.

Walking briskly down the road, Sakura untangled something pink from her rolled-up sleeve.

~.~.~.~

_***Saturday***_

~.~.~.~

"'Sup bastard? I brought The Shining."

Naruto flopped down on the couch as he often did. He tossed the DVD haphazardly onto the glass coffee table with a sharp thud.

"If that left a scratch," Sasuke growled as he locked the door, "There's no escape now."

"Ooooh, I'm so scared! Like hell I'd go back in the rain. Go make some popcorn."

Sasuke just glared.

"Ehehe, you know what? Lemme get that for you…"

Naruto scrambled from the couch and straight to the kitchen. As he walked, he turned to yell something.

"Hey, Sakura-chan called me, like, two hours ago. She was all nervous because she got to her date a few minutes early and the haunted house was scaring her."

Sasuke looked up at the clock as the doorbell rang. It was eight-thirty.

"Hey, who's that?"

"Don't know."

He unlocked the door, and Sakura burst in from the pouring rain, wrapping her arms around him and crying. She was soaking wet like she'd been outside for hours.

"H-He ditched me! I… I-I waited there, a-and he never sh-showed up, o-or called m-me, or- waaaah!"

She cried into his shirt for a full minute before Sasuke made her take off her shoes and come inside. Naruto sat by her and listened while she retold her story, and started to sneeze.

"Dobe, I don't have any medicine," Sasuke called from the bathroom. "Go get some."

"Yeah, can I take your car?"

"Fine," he said, not thinking about the obvious risk of lending Naruto his precious car.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's keys and jogged out into the rain.

Sasuke sat down on the couch while Sakura stood hunched over the coffee table, eating Naruto's popcorn. He frowned. After all this, she was still wearing that asshole's sweatshirt.

He walked up behind her and wordlessly pulled it up over her head.

"H-Hey!" She sneezed again.

"This goes in the garbage. Now."

After a moment of silence, she nodded in agreement. He pinched the soggy shirt between two fingers and tossed it into the outdoor trash before grabbing a towel from the laundry.

When he came back, she was sitting cross-legged on the floor with the DVD remote. The Shining was just beginning. He placed the towel over her back and couldn't fight a smile.

Around her tiny wrist, there was a ratty piece of string.

_***The End*  
**_

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**Super Special Note From Moi-** Boy, was I bored. I wrote this in a day, and typed it up in two days. Go me! If only I was this great with my homework. And my other story. Blehh…

_**R.A.W.R-**_ _**R**__ead __**A**__nd __**W**__rite __**R**__eviews! NowNowNOW!_

**Happy Halloween, bitches~!**_  
~Paisley May~_


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